Buceros hydrocorax hydrocorax circumorbital skin color

Steven D'Amato

Steven D'Amato

New Member
Good morning,
This is my first time here, so I hope I don't offend anyone in the way I am using this site. A former Bronx Zoo employee suggested I join ZooChat to either get informatiion or possibly in the future help give information regarding birdlife. Right now I need help with some information. Besides being a biologist, I am also an artist, and want to do a painting of a family of Great Philippine or Rufous Hornbills, Luzon subspecies - Buceros hydrocorax hydrocorax. The problem is that with the adult male, the color of the circumorbital skin is not black like it is in the female, or for that matter, in the other two subspecies, B. h. mindanensis & B. h. semigaleatus, males and females. Also, in B. h. hydxrocorax, the male has a red eye, the female and both sexes in the other two races have white eyes, however there are some other differences between the races: casque size, beak color, etc. Now the only reference I originally had was from THE HORNBILLS by Alan Kemp, illustrated by Martin Woodcock, Oxford University Press Copyright 1995, and in it, Kemp describes and Woodcock illustrates the male's circumorbital skin as "yellow". Now a few years ago, I came across a site in Google from the Zoo Liberec which had a pair of B. h. hydrocorax, and one could definitely see that the male, with the red eye, had a brown circumorbital skin, NOT yellow. UNFORTUNATELY, Zoo Liberic had modified that website between when I saw it in something like 2003 and now, and those photographs are no longer on it. So if anyone knows of any other publication which describes B. h. hydrocorax wherein that information can be obtained and thinks I can get access to, that would help. Now I know there is a 6 volume series KINGFISHERS AND RELATED BIRDS by Joseph M. Forshaw, illustrated by William T. Cooper, but the publishers decided to make that into a limited edition set whose final cost was going to be close to $5,000.00 and I doubt if any of my local libraries or even my college library of which I am still an alumnist would have that.
Thanks for your help.

Steven J. D'Amato
 
Hi Steven

I´m sorry but I don´t know what does it mean "circumorbital".
But check the ZooChat gallery - you can find here nice photos of Rufous hornbills taken at Palmyre zoo and Avifauna Birdpark, both collections hold the subspecies hydrocorax according to ISIS. And I´ve just uploaded a low quality photo of Rufous hornbill male from Dvur Kralove (of unknow subspecies) and a link where you can find a photo from Liberec. Maybe it could help you a bit.
 
Buceros hydrocorax hydrocorax
Male of nominate race with black-based red bill, large red casque with distal projection, bare skin around eye yellow.

B.c.mindanensis
circumorbital skin black with only lower part yellow

B.c.semigaleatus
female has circumorbital and throat skin greenish-yellow.

From Handbook of the Birds of the World.
 
Welcome to ZooChat, Steven.
I hope Bongorob has helped to answer your question - although you seem to have some contradictory answers already - and more may come from our knowledgeable membership. I can't contribute, I'm afraid - but it strikes me that this is the sort of question that a systematist at a major museum should be best placed to answer. I wonder which museum has the largest collection of hornbill skins from the Philippines.

For younger members, I'm so old that I was taught Latin at school, so I know that 'circumorbital' means 'around the eye'.

Alan
 
Jana, I replied to your anwser to me a few hours ago, but I don't think it went through and I don't see my response in my 'folder'. I want to make sure you know that I appreciate your helping me and that I had explained what the circumorbital skin of the hornbill (or for that matter, any bird) was. If it didn't make it through, let me know and I'll send you another E-mail letter and describe it again.

Steven D'Amato
 
This site is not mine, but i like it a lot:

The ZooTrotters - Home

It contains a lot of pictures of animals in the Netherlands, and it has 5 pictures of the rufous hornbills of Avifauna on it. Use the species Tab at the top of the screen to find them. Many more members here should be able to give you some pictures, and if you need more i can try and find some...

The gallery also has one picture of one of the animals at Palmyre Zoo (france)...
 
gentle lemur said:
For younger members, I'm so old that I was taught Latin at school, so I know that 'circumorbital' means 'around the eye'.

Alan
Click to expand...

So was I, and I haven't regretted it....

'WrithedHornbill' would have been able to answer this query perhaps- though only about 14 he's just about the World's leading expert on Hornbills- sadly he doesn't post nowadays but maybe he'll still read it. Are you still out there ' MrHornbill' ??:)
 
I never learnt Latin at school but the English master taught us all how turn the Queen's English into perfect Potteries dialect. Waste of time really, both Pottery and Latin are dead languages.
 
skin around eye varies from yellow to black


source: Protected and Wildlife Bureau Philippines.

My friend has hornbills in his care, he has the three subspecies of Buceros hydrocorax. I'll try to find out the difference on their circumorbital skin color.

Here is his flickr account with some pictures of hornbill chick and adult: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blue_eiki/2687692815/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blue_eiki/2687872067/

here is his mixed aviary of hydrocorax, mindanensis and semigaleatus
hornbillphotoset.jpg
 
Dear Thiago,
Thank you for your reply. So the circumorbital skin of the MALE B. h. hydrocorax (= Luzon subspecies) varies from yellow to black? It is curious that is not published in either Alan Kemp's book on the hornbills or Volume 6 of The Handbook of the Birds of the World - Mousebrds to Hornbills.
Steffen Patzwahl, Director of the Parc Paradisio of Belgium, sent me photographs of their B. h. hydrocorax pair. It showed their male with that diagnostic red eye, however it had an obvious brown circumorbital skin.
Mr. Patzwahl commented that they've had their pair since 1999 but so far, no reproduction. The family group in the photographs you sent, were the young bred in captivity or were they part of a rescued family group from the wild which is in his care? If the young were bred in captivity, was there anything special your friend did to induce the pair to breed? If so, I would like to pass that information on to Mr. Patzwahl so IF they have not already tried it, and IF it is feasible, Parc Paradisio might want to consider it.

Thanks again,
Steven D'Amato

P.S. I noticed more than one young in the photograph of the family group. I am very curious, did all the siblings that year have the same tail pattern or was there variation in the pattern with respect to the lengths and continuity of the three band colors amongst the siblings? These band patterns are supposed to be highly variable, but can they be variable amongst siblings within a hatching group, do they only vary between family groups, etc.? I've seen two I.D. illustration/paintings and one museum specimen, and although they have the medium dark (at the base), very dark to black (mid but off from center, more towards the end), and almost white (at the tip) bands, all three immature birds' tail patterns were significantly different from each other. With one illustration, all the retrices were identicle, each having all three color bands at the same place and width; with the AMNH specimen, the 2 central retrices did not have the black band, just the medium dark base band and white tip; and with the second illustration, from Alan Kemp's book: The Hornbills, Martin Woodcock painted the juvenile with the two central retrices having just the white band and no other colors, though Kemp does write that there is: "(much individual variation in tail markings)".
So it would be interesting to: 1) see what the tail pattern of these young were, and 2) see if they varied between the siblings (and if so, by how much).
 
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